BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The director-general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), Dr Richard Bernal, regards the farm subsidies deal reached at last week’s meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as “an important small victory” for disadvantaged and poor nations of the global community, including the Caribbean.

Bernal, just back from the WTO meeting in Geneva, said the achievement represented “a shared victory” for the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and the wider G-90 group of countries.

They all demonstrated “greater determination for unity and clarity” in articulating just demands for lifting the punishing levels of subsidies and tariff barriers that so deeply affect the small and poor nations, Bernal told the Observer in a telephone interview yesterday.

He commended the Guyanese minister for International Trade, Clement Rohee, for “a leadership initiative” exercised ahead of last month’s ministerial meeting in Mauritius that “proved useful to the process for generating greater cohesion”.

Bernal was, however, more cautious in his response to the agreement reached in getting back on track negotiations on the so-called Doha Agenda for global trade liberalisation following the collapse of the Cancun Round of ministerial negotiations in Mexico last September.

What was achieved in Geneva last week after five days of very intense deliberations, said Bernal, was to get on track a more “specific and focused” agenda for coming negotiations.

It was a collective effort by the developed and developing countries anxious to avoid the divisions that led to the collapse of the WTO’s Cancun ministerial meeting. He also praised the rich countries for adopting a more “enlightened” attitude.

The deal struck on the slashing, by the wealthy nations, of farm subsidies and tariff barriers should result in some US$520 billion flowing into the global economy by 2015 with expectations of significantly contributing to poverty reduction for approximately 144 million people in the least developed countries (LDCs), according to World Bank estimates.

For their part, the developing countries would be required to pursue a more flexible policy in the opening up of their markets to competitive manufactured exports from the developed world.

The RNM official said that the mood of unity revealed in Geneva by the ACP and G-90 bloc of states would have influenced the more enlightened approach in Geneva by the wealthy and powerful nations.

But in echoing a sentiment earlier expressed at the weekend by Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington, Bernal stressed that “cautious optimism” must be the guide as the Caribbean and its allies prepare “for the real work ahead” in the actual negotiations on the Doha Agenda for international trade liberalisation.